Companies (1986 Order) (Directors' Report) (Statement of Payment Practice) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend Article 242 of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (“the 1986 Order”) and Part VI of Schedule 7 to the 1986 Order.

The Regulations substitute for Part VI of Schedule 7 to the 1986 Order with consequential amendments to Article 242, a new Part set out in regulation 2(2). The new Part VI provides that the directors' report of public companies and large private companies which are subsidiaries of a public company must contain a statement of the company’s policy and practice on payment of its suppliers.

The new Part VI restates the existing provisions of Part VI (statement of the company’s policy on payment of its suppliers) and adds a new requirement to state the company’s practice on payment of its suppliers. The directors' report must state the figure, expressed in days, which bears the same proportion to the number of days in the year as the amount owed to trade creditors at the year end bears to the amounts invoiced by suppliers during the year.

The Regulations will not apply to annual accounts and annual reports prepared and delivered to the registrar of companies in respect of financial years ending on or before 20th January 1998.